Title : Development of high strength aluminium matrix composites using accumulative roll bonding ARB
Abstract:
Aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) are widely used in the automotive, aerospace, and shipping industries owing to their high strength-to-weight ratio properties. Several well-established processes are reported in the literature to produce AMCs. However, accumulative roll bonding (ARB) is a potential severe plastic deformation technique for the mass production of metal sheets that improves the material's strength through grain refinement. In the present study, we develop aluminium composites where open-pore metal foam is employed to infuse polymer-derived ceramics in an aluminium matrix through ARB. The interconnected cellular structure of metal foams uniformly distributes polymer particles as reinforcement in the aluminium matrix. After the tenth pass of the ARB, processed samples underwent heat treatment at 550 °C for in-situ pyrolysis, which turns polymer particles into ceramic. Results show that three additional passes of ARB i.e., post pyrolysis ARB, further increase the strength of the Al-composite due to the removal of porosities. The developed composite exhibits a 3.5-fold increase in hardness (74 HV). Furthermore, the yield strength and tensile strength of the composite increased by 2 times (160.82MPa) and 1.6 times (190.35MPa) respectively which is attributed to ultra-fine grain refinement and homogeneous distribution of the nanoscale ceramic particles.
Audience take away:
- The use of open-pore metal foam in producing high strength metal matrix composites by ARB.
- This article provides the solution to the problem of uniform distribution of reinforcements in metal matrix by using metal foam.
- This research article can be extended to study the effect of pore diameter and porosity on distribution of reinforcements in metal matrix composites.
